View full sizeAkiko (Rin Takanashi) has boyfriend and other problems in "Like Someone in Love."IFC/Sundance Selects

A call girl shows up at an elderly man's apartment outside Tokyo. But it's not what you think. He is later mistaken for her grandfather by the woman's hotheaded boyfriend, but it's not what you think. Where all of this is heading is not as important as how you get there. I think.

"Like Someone in Love" is a puzzle of frame games. Writer-director Abbas Kiarostami delights in dropping us into scenes and framing them in such a way that leaves us wanting more. At times it reminded me of Michael Haneke's "Cache," focusing your eyes on different parts of the screen, not really sure what you're looking for. It's a clever technique that adds a blend of mystery and anticipation.

When we first meet Akiko (Rin Takanashi) she is in a Tokyo bar lying to her boyfriend on her cellphone. We hear her but don't see her at first. We're not sure who she is talking to or what exactly her connection is to the other people in the bar. The camera does not really allow us to see what we are drawn to.

Eventually we are headed outside the city in a long cab ride with Akiko. She wears a face that grows familiar: unhappy. She says very little. The sounds are provided by the traffic and her multiple cellphone messages. Once inside the book-lined apartment of her client, Takashi (Tadashi Okuno), the frame-game repeats. The characters do not initially connect, as Takashi has a phone call and Akiko pokes around his shelves and furnishings. Later, as she undresses in the bedroom, he can't quite see what she is up to.

Takashi is an author, translator and sometime lecturer. Akiko, in addition to her night-hopping, is a student nervous about an exam the next day. They develop a sweet bond. But there is that pushy, easy-to-anger boyfriend.

Kiarostami ("Certified Copy") artfully plays with us -- the early scenes are especially mesmerizing -- though I found myself wishing his script possessed more oomph in the final third. The slight, sorrow-laden Takanashi looks as if she will blow away in the wind. The easygoing Okuno, with a face of great character, should be everybody's grandfather.

The title is a Jimmy van Heusen-Johnny Burke song from the 1940s, originally performed by Dinah Shore. It's been covered by everyone from Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra to Bjork, but the film features a 1957 version from the great Ella Fitzgerald.

"Like Someone in Love," which arrives Friday at the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights, is an international collaboration. Kiarostami is from Iran. His film, shot in Tokyo, is in Japanese with subtitles. The credits are in French. Ella sings in English.

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